Johnny Ray's Quiet Times

Johnny Ray is doing a great job along with contributors in commenting on the Proverbs. It is good to know that others are deriving benefits from the timeless teachings of Solomon's compilation of practical and divine wisdom.

Go for it!

Proverbs 2:1-6 -Seeking Wisdom

1My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;

2So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;

3Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;

4If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;

5Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.

6For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.

If - Two letters and a very big word.

It covers all the possibilities and eventualities. It embraces countless choices and consequences. It places responsibility for outcomes back on our shoulders so that we have no excuses for the results of our decisions. We make the calls and the consequences follow.

It also serves as a glowing reminder that there is hope.

We must receive the words of truth and wisdom. We must receive them joyfully, expectantly, and obediently. We must receive them with the attitude that we are going to apply them and cherish them.

We must hide them in our hearts. That implies that we will ponder them, turn them over in our minds, examine them from all dimensions and implications, internalize them, and even memorize them.

The interim result of this practice is described in verse 2. We listen more attentively, critically, and earnestly and we apply the principles of truth more deeply.

The second "if" condition differs from the first only in intensity as it builds upon it. We must desire wisdom so passionately and desperately that our whole being cries out for it. We lift up our voices and ask for it in prayer as well as in requests to our teachers.

What teacher, be he an earthly professor or the divine Holy Spirit does not delight in a student who asks for more learning and is willing to invest the time, energy, and devotion to gain it?

The third "if" is also a building block. Seeking for wisdom as if one is on a treasure hunt is what it takes to gain her riches. we demonstrate how serious we are by the effort we are willing to extend.

The "if"s are followed by a "then" as in any logical progression.

The consequences of this deep commitment to learning, growth, and acquisition of wisdom is that we gain it and more. We acquire a new reverence for God and understanding of Who He is and His purposes. This is because God is the source of all wisdom and He gives it generously to all who seek it. He is the wisdom of the wise and the fount of all truth. Jesus said it this way, “Seek and ye shall find.”

Proverbs 1:30-33

The Consequences of Willful Ignorance - Proverbs 1:30-33 

30 - They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. 31 - Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. 32 - For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. 33 - But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil. 

What we are inclined to do is mess up our own lives. We have a propensity for self-sabotage that is alarming. 

To be so self-contained that we seek no advice is equivalent in Proverbs to foolishness and folly. Two advantages are embraced by the wise. One is counsel and another is reproof (correction). Those who value their own dreams, goals, and success not only accept them, but seek them out.

Not to do so requires no external judgment, though persistence may bring it upon us. Those who despise reproof eat the fruit of their own ways. The natural consequences of ignoring wisdom from outside ourselves are grave and sure. When we turn away from instruction, we slay ourselves. When we gather false prosperity to ourselves without wisdom, we destroy ourselves.

The converse is likewise true. We can apply ourselves to wisdom and cultivate the heart of a life-long learner who is willing to be someone else's student and thus, build a life of security and peace.

Oh the choices we must make.

Poverbs 1:28-29 More Consequences of Rejecting Wisdom

28 - Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: 29 - For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: 30 - They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.

To be absolutely accurate, this is not the voice of God. It is the voice of His first creation, wisdom. It is the voice of a jilted lover, a spurned friend, and a rejected companion. Wisdom may pursue us and call us, but it will not force itself upon us.

Wisdom is only helpful to those who love wisdom.

The wise are those who seek it.

All others suffer the direct and logical calamity of rejecting her.

Wisdom will not answer at the last minute. It must come slowly to our lives as we seek it, assimilate it, practice it, and confirm it in our lives. If we wait until we need it is desperation, it will be too late.

Proverbs 1:24-27 Consequences of Rejecting Wisdom

Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.

First, it is important to distinguish that, while God is the author of wisdom and is all wise, this is not God speaking through God's voice. This is wisdom speaking. It is an important distinction. While God appreciates the irony of our rebellion, it does not delight Him, but grieves Him. Wisdom's laughter is the impersonal and inherent humor of poetic justice.

When Haaman is hung in the gallows he built for Mordecai in the book of Esther, that same instinct that cheers for the Roadrunner in the cartoons and laughs at the Coyote kicks in. Wisdom sees the intrinsic dark and tragic humor of what transpires.

Specifically, here is a know-it-all who refuses all the overtures of truth and discretion. He will not listen to advice; he scoffs at learning from the experiences of others; he is offended by correction; he is haughty, proud, and self-assured.

He struts out of life's classroom and immediately falls in a hole that he was warned would be there.

That is funny is a sad sort of way.

God is weeping; wisdom is laughing. God sees the irony; wisdom sees the tragedy. God keeps loving this wayward one and wisdom keeps reaching out, hoping that he will have learned to laugh at himself as well and listen the next time.

If he is wise or at least wiser, he will be laughing harder than anyone - though he be bruised and torn and weeping with God.

We need to learn from our mistakes. When we do, we truly learn and are better prepared to be the subject of our own victory stories rather than the brunt of our own jokes.

A note on Proverbs 1:23 - Because of the peculiarities of Hebrew, such as the absence of tense, the verse we recently commented upon:

Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

... could also read ...

"If you had turned ... I would have ..."

While the essential meaning is the same, one indicates wisdom's lament over the rejection by the one she has sought and the other holds out the possibility to us that wisdom will indeed come through for us if we heed her reproof. Both are true. Both are vital.